[Gift: Mana Synchronization
Grade: Heaven Grade-2
Description: Allows the user to familiarize more with mana, enhancing the effect of skills, items and weapons. It also increases the user's ability to wield mana, enhancing proficiency and mana absorption!
Effects:
-All mana related skills of the user will have a 80% increased effect and their cooldown will be decreased by 40%
-The Mana cost of all skills will be reduced by 50%.
-The Items/Weapons used by the user will have a 40% increased effect
-The intelligence to MP ratio will be increased to 1:40
-Mana Regeneration increased by 400%]
[Skill: Mana Regeneration (Passive)!
Grade: B
Effect: Regenerates 4% of the user's MP per minute!]
[Skill: Grade up!
Grade: S
Effect: The user can increase the Grade of any one of her skills by 1 Grade for 2 Hours
Cooldown: 24 Hours!]
"…"
"…"
I and Mark looked at her blankly.
Broken.
That was the only word I could say about her gift and skills. I was more or less fine given my own [Game Master System], but the same cannot be said for Mark, who was looking at her with a betrayed expression.
The disparity was too much.
"Why trust me?" I asked the first question that popped in my mind. With her abilities, as long as she gets even a small [Skill], she would be able to outrank everyone in this place without even half the effort.
Also… Why did her contractor not give even a simple spell to her? Why leave her defenseless like this without any offensive skills? Surely she would shine the brightest among the players even with the worst of the skills.
'Was her contractor unable to afford that kind of skill or did they just want to see her struggle before achieving this on her own? Or were there any form of restrictions?'
This confused me the most.
"Well there are two reasons for that," Alice began speaking as he looked at me,
"First was that you seemed much more dependable than everyone in this mess. Despite Luke trying to act calm and being a leader, I could see that he was getting overwhelmed a whole lot. It's as if a child is pretending to be a hero."
She looked in the direction of other players before continuing," about the other players. I would rather have someone who is weak but sharp enough to make the right decisions, than someone who is strong and gets drunk on their power."
"As for the third category of players who will only leech off others. Let's just not talk about them."
I looked at her as I spoke," is that so? Thanks for thinking so highly of me. I was just looking out for myself."
She nodded before adding," it's fine. The other reason was about your personality. You deal with everyone from a professional point of view. Your eyes seem to gauge the profit out of everyone, trying to make the best of the situation."
"For me, it's much better than a free good will that will make me question your intentions behind everything you do. As a professional person myself, I too believe in the give and take philosophy. So, I think it's better to stick with you than with anyone else."
'Well, she got me there,' I sighed on the inside as I kept looking at her, before I shook my head. With her [Gift] and [Skills], we would easily clear the entire scenario. But I need to recalculate my steps as well.
"All right. Since you told your [Gift], I guess it won't be fair if I keep mine hidden," I sighed as I continued,
"I don't have a [Gift]. Or to be precise it's locked right now."
A surprised expression appeared on her and Mark's face as they both looked at me. Not minding, I continued,
"The unlocking conditions stated that I need to explore the area around me. Since it didn't say how much, or given any other explanations, the best thing I could do was to walk around, hoping to unlock it."
With a surprised look on their faces, they both observed me with an expected gaze. I don't know what was going on in their mind, but they both looked at me with a slight jealous look.
Were they thinking that since it's [Locked!], there is a high chance it's an extraordinary Gift? It could be possible.
"Then about the traps?" Mark asked a bit confused and I answered him without hiding anything," sorry that I hid it before, but I also have a B-Grade skill [Perception], that increases my sight and other visual prowess."
Since Alice too had a skill, she didn't find it odd that I also had a skill. And while Mark felt a bit betrayed that I hid my skill, recalling how Luke behaved with me before, he too thought that it was the right course of action for me.
He was still a little bit grumpy nonetheless.
"Anyways, we should go now," I said as I looked at the other who began leaving as well. The faster we start, the faster they can grow.
With that said and done, the 6 of us, 3 players and 3 NPCs, began walking towards the South-West direction, opposite to where I hunted before. Since Alice should be able to kill the goblins with ease now, I don't think we will have much problems there.
The number of goblins was more than yesterday, and that became apparent as we encountered a goblin about 50 meters away from school. It was only yesterday that the nearest goblin was at least 500 meters away from the school, which made me wonder how hectic things would be at the end of the tutorial.
-BOOM!
Not wasting time, Alice chanted her first spell with excitement. I could see stars in her eyes as she blasted the head of the goblin, burning it to charcoal before its body fell on the ground.
"…"
"…"
I and Mark just stared at her, smirking as she looked at us. While I just had a dry chuckle before asking,
"200?"
"200," She smiled as she answered.
Since hunting would be easier for us now, I looked at the surroundings, trying to find any NPCs. I wondered if I should create a skill that would help me look for NPCs, but then I decided not to, since I can just do it manually.
To be fair, I could have made changes to the [Perception!] skill, but I thought it would be a waste to do since my [Gift!] would give me the same benefits later on.
While Alice hunted, I tried asking the NPCs about their lives and how they ended up in this situation. To which seemed pretty much oblivious. They looked at me in confusion, as if I were asking a stupid question. Odd as it may have been, I didn't dwell on it and continued with my questions and answers.
In the first hour, I and Mark visited multiple houses on the streets, calling out for people. Alice on the other hand passionately hunted all the goblins she could find on the way. Since the number of Goblins were increased, she scored about 5000 points easily.
"How many did you find?" Mark asked as sighed, not finding any NPCs, while I shook my head dejectedly as well,
"None."
"It's all right. Let's keep going," Alice said enthusiastically, reminding me of my previous self. It's fun as long as it's easy, isn't it?
The progress with the NPCs was rather slow. Whether it was finding the other NPCs, or trying to get information out of those with us, we were still at zero. It was as if the NPCs had their memories wiped off on anything not related to what I had already seen.
Anyways, we continued this for about 4 hours until we reached about 2 kilometers away from school. Since the number of goblins had increased, even Alice was having a hard time keeping up with their numbers.
Noticing that, I decided that we need to take a break, to which everyone agreed. Choosing a nearby house, we chose the rooftop, before making sure all the exits were sealed.
"All right. Since we have our damage dealer. I can act as a scout with my [Perception!] skill, but we still need a few more roles to be filled. Let's start with what a basic party constitution needs."
I began speaking as I explained to them the gaming terms and related that to our current situation.
Warrior. Guardian. Mage. Ranged unit. Healer.
These were the five that constituted the most basic composition of a stable party that could survive for a long period of time.
We had a Mage, Alice, that could act as Warrior, Mage and a healer, given her skill set. Mark's [Gift: Eagle's Sight], allowed him to shoot arrows accurately even as far as 2000 meters, making him a proper ranged unit. Though that still needs to be checked.
Unlike my perception which allowed me to see at night or discern certain things, he could only see what a normal vision can offer.
As for me, I was pretty much useless in this party for now. Though, for some reason, they still listened to my words without any hint of prejudice. Their trust made me feel happy on the inside while I kept a serious face at front.
"So for now, we don't have any protection from a sudden attack of any form. The best we can do is to keep some healing potions and protection skills that would help us survive a surprise attack," I looked at them nodding at me before I continued,
"But since we have Alice here, it's better for her to buy the healing skill along with a protection skill. I think we have enough points for both of them. Also, Alice, can you later buy a bow for Mark? I think it's better if we start increasing our range of hunting as well."
Alice didn't mind my words as she bought a normal bow and a set of arrows for Mark. This way he can start hunting on his own without depending upon Alice.
The idea was to provide a basic plan where both Mark and Alice would grow on their own, without depending upon another one within the group. A basic push, that would accelerate them in their journey.
It does not mean that the party would break. But I would like to keep the co-dependence factor as minimal as possible here.
While I do want to get stronger behind the scenes, I would pretend to be an extra piece in this game who only did whatever he could do to survive.
Standing up, I then walked towards the edge of the roof, from where I looked at a distance where a dozen goblins were walking. Each of them was [F-Ranked!], so it shouldn't be a problem for Mark to kill them from here, right?
"Mark. Come here," I called him out, as he walked with his eyes observing me, before he looked in the direction where I pointed.
"You see them?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Shoot them all down," I gave my command, making him look at me with a surprised expression. At first, he thought I was joking but observing that I wasn't he was baffled even more.
"Dude. That's more than 500 meters!" He exclaimed but I spoke again,
"I know."
Alice and those NPCs walked closer to us with interest, as they observed what was going on. And then looking at them, before turning back to me, Mark sighed as he spoke,
"Don't blame me if I miss."
I nodded before observing those goblins as well. Mark, aimed towards the goblin with a fixed gaze, before he placed an arrow and stretched the bowstring.
-Shing!
The arrow left the bow, made an arc high up in the air, and then reaching the goblin, it hit… about 100 meters away from it.
"See. I told you, it won't work," he sighed before I pondered before asking," how much is your strength stat and your free attributes?"
He observed my face before looking at the system. And then answering,"5.4 Strength and 4 Free attributes. I used 3 for agility back when I was returning alone to the high school."
I nodded before speaking," for now, use 3 for strength. And then try again."
He wanted to retort, but watching that I was serious, he did as I said. He cursed me under his breath a little before trying again as he stretched the bowstring.
-Shing!
This time, the arrow flew higher than before, at a faster speed than last time. And reaching near that goblin, it landed 2 meters away from.
Looking at the alarmed goblins, I sighed as they weren't stationary anymore. Since Mark couldn't hit them while they were moving, I doubted he could do it now.
'Was 500 meters plus too much?' I wondered but then I saw Mark's fixed gaze at those goblins. His eyes seemed pretty focused right now as he readied his bow again.
Not disturbing him, I silently observed him.
-Shing!
The arrow flew this time again, at one of the goblins who was now standing cautiously, observing the surroundings. Making an arc, that arrow reached that goblin and like a knife at an apple, it stuck to its head. Before his body fell on the ground.